The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-02-24

CURIOUS RAILWAYS.
TRACKS LAID ON TREE TOPS, OVER
ICE AND UNDERGROUND.


Through a Forest With a Crosscut
Saw-On a Single Rail-A Successful
Sailing Car.
In a small book entitled "Wonders and
Curiosities of the Railway" the author, Mr.
W. S. Kennedy, touches on the anomalous
and entertaining features of his subject III
chapters bearing such suggestive titles as
The Lightning Harnessed," The Loco
motive in Slippers" "The Luxur1es OF
Travel" and "a Handful of Curiosltles.
1t appears that some time ago locomotive
on sled runners was constructed III ocoIlaLO,
and employed for drawing passengers anu
freight over the ice between st. petersburg
and Cronstadt. The two driving wheels IN
the rear were studded with sharp spikes,
whereas the front part of the engine rested on
q sled which was swiveled and turned TO Ina
right or left by wheels working IN connection
with an endless screw and segment IacA
From this locomotive, which IS SAID 10 nave
run eighteen miles an hour IN any dlTectloh'
the transition is natural to ralroiuS "hO9o
ties and tracks have been lald on tne IioZen
surface of rivers. Mr.. Kennedy tells US uhaU
i'm 1870 when the mercury stood twenty
DEGREES below zero a train Of the Northern
Pacific railroad passed over the missouri
river on ice three feet thick. The pressure
which the ice resisted may be estimated rom
the fact that the track was laid on Twelve looU
ties and that the cars carried over quallUICy
of railroad iron as well as a NUMBER Vi
visitors About a year after a similar ROAD
was Luilt across the river St Lawrence az
Hochelaga.
LAYING TIES ON TREE sTUMPS.
Even more novel is the idea of grading FOR
a railroad through a forest with crosscuC
saw. and LAYING the ties o. the stumps. This
in, Y. III
this state Here the trees were sawed OH ana
leveled, and the ties fastened on the stumps,
two of which were huge redwoods, standing
side by side, and sawed off seVenty-nVe Iee1
from the ground. So firm is this support
that cars loaded with heavy logs can pass
over with perfect security. Several wooden
track railways are actually operated IN the
United States and Canada. One OF these, III
the province of Quebec, is thirty miles long |
and is used in the transportation of timber. |
The rails are of maple and trains are said to
run over them with remarkable smoothness
at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour
Still more curious are what MIR. Kennedy |
would call the bicycle railways, where the |
car wheels run on single rail. One called |
the ''steam caravan" was begun in Syria, be /
tween Alleppo and Alexandrettt, but APP |
parently never finished. In the case OF this |
experimepA the rail was raised ON wall OF
teen and one-half inches broad. On this one !
rail were to travel the wheels of the locOmo-
tive and the carriages attached, but 1t was
intended to brace the engine and the last car
in the train by obliquely placed leather-coV-
cred wheels, running along the sides or the
wall. which wheels were further to serve as
brakes A single rail, or bicycle railroad
has also been built in the United States, anc
was in operation at PhOenixville, Pa, In 1876.
,~~T,r1 1SNarN 1fNfIx
has been made in Glocester, n. j., for an
elevated railroad in Atlanta, Ga.
BY ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE.
There is nothing specially new in the pro-
ject of atmospheric railways, or, IN other
words, of propelling carriages along large
tube by producing vacuum in front and
applying atmospheric pressure behind This
device has not proved of much practical
value though tubular road of this kind
was for time in actual operation at the
CRYSTAL Palace, Sydenham The tube i'll this
instance was of brick, quarter of a mile
long nine feet high and eight feet wide, and
the car within it was used only for the
convenience of passengers. The pis-
ton that propelled the was rendered
almost air tight by means of a fringe of
bristles, extending nearly to the surrounding
brick work of the tunnel and to its floor. A
fan, worked by a steam engine, both ex-
hausted and compressed the air. The motion
of the car was pleasant, and the ventilation
ample In connection with this branch of his
subject Mr. Kennedy tells us that a flying
locomotive" was made to justify its name at the
aeronautical exhibition i'll England, in 1868
The engine weighed thirteen pounds, and was
made to lift itself, with forty pounds in addi-
ton, to a height of six inches in continuous
flight around the room But a much more sue
cessful sailing car was invented for the Kansas
Pacific railroad, and has been used for years
as a hand car on that road. The mast is
eleven feet high, and the triangular sail has
two booms On the plains a speed Of forty
miles an hour has been attained by this car
with the wind right abeam, the sail close
hauled. and the road full Of disadvantageOus
curves
1t will probably be news to most persons
that in 1876, at Paris, one Dr. La COmbe eX-
hibited the model of submarine railway
which he proposed to lay on the bottom of
the channel between Dover and Calais. On
a roadbed of concrete three galvanized iron
rails were to be placed, two for the track
and one in the centre To the central rail
the car was to be attached by rollers, in
order to prevent it being derailed by the
waves The boat car to be air tight,
and driven by propeller screw worked by
air. Fresh air was to be sup
piled to the occupants of the by tube
running up to the surface of the water,
where it would be affixed to a buoy. Finally,
a series of buoys on the surface would mark
out the track of the car, which, in case of
any accident could be cut loose below,
whereupon it would rise to the surface.-The
A Happy African Prince.
Y